THE latest gossip in Westminster is that David Cameron won’t hold the EU referendum until the last possible moment.

David cameron does not think Britain would benefit from a Swiss or Norwegian style-deal with the EU

Having pledged it will happen before the end of 2017 that could mean we have to wait another two years before we get to vote. As if that’s not depressing enough it would mean two more years of the “phoney war” that began this month when the two main campaign groups launched.

It’s a phoney war because as things stand now none of us knows what we will actually be voting on when the referendum does happen. We don’t as yet have any details about the outcome of the renegotiation of our membership terms, announced with such fanfare by Mr Cameron when he pledged to hold a referendum back in January 2013.

Related articles

But that hasn’t stopped the stay in campaign swinging into action with its usual mix of scares, distortions and down-right lies. Now Mr Cameron himself has joined in, putting his spin doctors to work at the weekend with a preview of his remarks at the summit of Baltic leaders this week.

He says that if we accept a “Norwaystyle” deal with the EU it would be a disaster and we cannot have a “best of both worlds” deal like Norway and Switzerland outside the EU. In theory diplomats and ministers have been busy on the renegotiation for more than two years. And whenever Mr Cameron is asked about the referendum he responds with the same line: that we should all wait for the result of the renegotiation.

His remarks on Norway and Switzerland are odd – to be charitable – from a man who is supposedly so determined that we keep an open mind until the renegotiation is concluded. So keen was he to start the ball rolling with his scares about Norway and Switzerland that he couldn’t even wait until the summit and so previewed them at the weekend.

GETTY

The PM that if we accept a 'Norwaystyle' deal with the EU it would be a disaster

It’s true that both Norway and Switzerland obey EU rules but have no say in framing them because they’re not members. And while Norway pays to be in the single market, the Swiss have different access rules negotiated for different sectors. But like most of the scare tactics used by the stay in campaign it’s a giant red herring. No one wants the so-called “Norway option” and Great Britain is not Norway.

His remarks on Norway and Switzerland are odd – to be charitable – from a man who is supposedly so determined that we keep an open mind until the renegotiation is concluded

We are the fifth largest economy in the world and if we vote to leave the next step will be a deal based on free trade. The EU needs us – or rather our consumers. It’s that simple. As for the renegotiations, if the word from Brussels is even remotely correct then they are a meaningless diversion.

A report last month quoted an EU diplomat saying: “We just haven’t heard anything from the British about what they want for ages. It does seem to have stalled. It’s very awkward for us all.” Another said: “There is not a word. Not a single word typed on a single sheet of paper.” Indeed when Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, made a presentation last week to the Cabinet on the progress of the renegotiation it was said to have been greeted with dismay for being not so much underwhelming as simply empty.

GETTY

David Cameron won’t hold the EU referendum until the last possible moment

GETTY

David Cameron says we can’t have best of both worlds

Which probably explains why Mr Cameron is already resorting to the scare tactics that are the stock-in-trade of EU fanatics and which we are going to have to get used to while we wait for the referendum. Scares such as the notion put forward at the launch of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign that the UK would become a haven for rapists and murderers.

Shamefully Sir Hugh Orde, the former president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said at the launch that if we left the EU we would become a home for foreign “villains” because our extradition laws would favour criminals. But the most pernicious scare, which is repeated and then disproved so regularly that those who mention it must know it’s utter nonsense, is that three million jobs depend on our membership.

Nick Clegg trotted it out in his TV debate with Nigel Farage last year. Lord Rose, the chairman of the BSiE campaign, was at it again at its launch. But the man who wrote the report on which the distorted claim is based, Prof Iain Begg of the LSE, says that it is nonsense and that he is angered by the “persistent misrepresentation” of the stay in crowd.

Not that anyone should be surprised – when it comes to scare tactics the EU fanatics know no limits. Yesterday it emerged that the Prime Minister is thinking about trying a different tack. With the renegotiation such a damp squib it has been reported that his plan is to give a name change to our membership so we would be known as associate members.

It’s not so much limp as pathetic. He can call it “flying pig membership” if he wants. No one is interested in what it’s called. Only one thing matters: the terms of our membership. That means, come the referendum, if he puts to us a new deal that offers access to the single market and self-government then he will have done exactly what he said and negotiated a serious deal that will be worth considering.

If the best he comes up with is a new name and some fiddling around on the margins then the stay in campaign will have nothing to offer but fear. No wonder Mr Cameron has begun trying to spread that fear already.